Recipe – Bacon and Chorizo Pasta Bake

Pasta bakes are the stuff of family dinner legend… kids love pasta and a bake is a great way to get really soft pasta and maximum flavour into your meal. I may be accused of being a heathen putting Chorizo in an Italian dish, but it works brilliantly and provides a very tasty meal.

To feed two adults and two children, you will need:

250g pack of unsmoked streaky bacon

250g dried penne pasta

150g grated mozzarella

60g Chorizo, finely diced

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 yellow pepper, diced

100g cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 red onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon each of dried oregano and basil

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.

Pop the pasta into a pan of salted water and bring to the boil, then simmer for 8 minutes, stirring regularly to make sure none of the pasta sticks. Drain once done.

In a large pan, fry the onion and garlic on a medium heat until soft. Cut up the bacon with scissors and add that, stirring until it’s cooked through. Add the pepper, cherry tomatoes and chorizo, stirring to combine. Sprinkle over the herbs and a good seasoning of freshly ground black pepper.

Stir in the tin of chopped tomatoes and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Mix in the pasta and then pour into a baking dish. Sprinkle the mozzarella over the top and pop in the oven for 20 minutes.